RANGERS AWARDS Cookie Campaign Challenge

Award Requirements

Take an active role in supporting the sale of unit cookies in at least four cookie campaigns using at least two different methods over the four campaigns.

There are three methods outlined below; however, others may also be used.1) Getting Ready for Your Cookie Campaigna) Have a clear idea of what you’re going to do with the funds raised, what you’ll learn from the experience and what your sales goal is. Find out how much your unit earns per case.b) Research the cost of an activity and then figure out how many boxes of cookies would be needed to support it.c) Create personal goals for what you want to get out of selling cookies.d) Get to know your product to get ready to sell and answer questions.e) Understand the motivations of your customer. Put yourself in the customer’s shoes to understand what is appealing about the cookies. Put together your thoughts on what motivates customers.f) Brainstorm a list of typical customers and where and how you can reach them.g) Ask relatives or friends to assist you in finding out what kind of information would be appealing as an incentive to buy cookies.

2) Marketing Your Cookiesa) Play a role in developing your unit’s marketing plan. You could take on one of the following roles or another needed within you unit. Use your skills to choose a position that can make use of what you like and are good at. o Event Planner - This person organizes the where, what and when for a cookie sales event. o Art Director - Designs the cookie booth display and/or presentation.o Customer Service Rep - Talks to customers and develops a short sales pitch to catch the customer’s interest; she may also coach team members on how to present themselves to customers.o Finance Manager - Tracks the costs and expenses of cookie sales.o Marketing Manager - Finds new places to sell, identifies new types of customers, and creates thank-you messages.o Public Relations Specialist – Writes news items to highlight the group’s successes; lets people know about who has benefited from the sales.b) Create a sales pitch with others in your unit and learn about making cold calls.c) With a group, role-play possible scenarios that cookie sellers may encounter.d) Get copies of any sales aids available from the national office (check www.girlguides.ca and Member Zone). Invite a marketing specialist to a meeting to talk about branding.e) Check into the dollars and cents of managing cookie sales. Your cookie campaign is a hands-on chance to gain experience in money management.o Create a budget for your campaign (or for the activity which the cookies will fund).o Manage the cash. Show younger girls how to make change, use a spreadsheet to track sales and profits and help prepare bank deposits.

This challenge is designed to develop skills in event planning, money management, communications, public speaking and customer service.

RANGERS AWARDS Award Requirements - cont.

3) Sell those cookies.a) Choose one of the following options for pitching and selling your cookies, or create one entirely of your own:o Set up events to promote and sell cookies (this is referred to as “in-field marketing”). Create a list of all the tasks that will be part of the event. Estimate when each item should be organized or completed.o Set up and complete a neighbourhood cookie blitz. Create a list of all the tasks that will be part of the event. Estimate when each item should be organized or completed.o Set up and complete a cookie selling partnership with a local business. Create a list of all the tasks that will be part of the event. Estimate when each item should be organized or completed.

4) Additional optionsa) Review what you have learned from your campaign that will benefit you in the future. Make this part of the next cookie campaign.b) Determine how to use the cookie campaign sales aids most effectively (collaborate with other units or groups; assign neighbourhoods or parts of your community to different groups).c) Cookie campaigns can help you explore careers — particularly those involving sales, marketing and public relations. But here are a few additional fields to investigate. Meet with someone in one of the careers from the following list or go to his or her workplace for a tour:o Communicationso Media Relationso Accounting or Financeo Graphic Designo Advertisingo Brandingo Product Developmento Nutritiono Food Scienceso Journalismo Culinary Artso Entrepreneurial Studieso Food Manufacturingd) Review what skills you’ve learned through selling cookies that you could transfer to your resume and make these updates. Your skills clearly relate to sales and retail jobs. However, you’ve also learned “soft” skills that can be used to describe the kind of person you are and how you approach a job. Use your cookie-selling goals and sales record to demonstrate measurable successes.e) Find ways to use cookie sales as a way to give back to your community and put it into action. For example: Invite people to buy a box of cookies to donate to a women’s shelter, group home or seniors’ home or promote cookie campaigns as a way of teaching skills and raising the profile of Girl Guides of Canada in your community.